Microsoft Foundry hosted agents vs Shellbox

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents costs $0.0994 per vCPU-hour and Shellbox costs $0.01 per vCPU-hour. Microsoft Foundry hosted agents runs microVMs. Shellbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents

Isolation
MicroVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
Not listed

Shellbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
No limit

What is different

8 fields differ. The rest are the same or not listed.

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents
Shellbox
vCPU, per hour
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0994
Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0118
Shellbox: Included
Billing
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Per second
Shellbox: Bundled machine time
Idle stop
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: After 15 minutes
Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Largest sandbox
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: 2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Up to 2,000
Shellbox: Up to 16
Isolation
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: MicroVM
Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
Integrations
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, OpenAI Agents SDK
Shellbox: Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0994
Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0118
Shellbox: Included
Storage
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Free tier
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
Paid plan from
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Pay as you go
Shellbox: Pay as you go
Billing
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Per second
Shellbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Shellbox: No limit
Idle stop
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: After 15 minutes
Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Largest sandbox
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: 2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Up to 2,000
Shellbox: Up to 16

Platform

Isolation
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: MicroVM
Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Shellbox:
Pause and resume
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents:
Shellbox:

Developer

SDKs
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Shellbox: Not listed
Integrations
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, OpenAI Agents SDK
Shellbox: Claude Code

Trust

License
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
BYOC
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents
Shellbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.123
Shellbox: $0.010
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.246
Shellbox: $0.020
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.492
Shellbox: $0.040

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents fits when

  • You use the Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP or the OpenAI Agents SDK.

Shellbox fits when

  • You use Claude Code.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.020 against $0.246 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need snapshots.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 2 vCPU · 4 GiB.

More comparisons

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